A look at the media world through the eyes of veteran Canadian TV columnist Eric Kohanik.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Bomb Girls: Facing The Enemy

ON SCREEN:
BOMB GIRLS: FACING THE ENEMY
Global - March 27

The Final Chapter

Those Feisty "Bomb Girls" Wrap Up Their Saga With A TV Movie

By Eric Kohanik

The setting is a mostly empty,
114-year-old building that once housed a fabric mill known as the
Imperial Cotton Company in the industrial north end of Hamilton, Ont.
On one of the upper floors, part of the vast space has been
transformed into a grimy old gymnasium, where a boxing ring is
ensconced in plumes of smoke. Inside the ring, two women are duking
things out as throngs of beer-swilling, fedora-wearing men cheer them
on.

If it all looks like a moment plucked
from some bygone era, that's because it is.

Welcome to Bomb Girls – The Movie,
a two-hour production that continues – and wraps up – the
storyline of the once-popular Canadian TV series.

Originally designed as a six-episode
drama in 2012, Bomb Girls ended up growing to 18 episodes that
continued into a second season. The series revolved around a core
group of four women – played by Meg Tilly, Jodi Balfour, Ali
Liebert and Charlotte Hegele – who worked in a Canadian munitions
factory during the Second World War.

The series attracted a dedicated
following of fans who cried foul when Global cancelled the show last
year. Protests eventually led the network to greenlight a TV-movie to
wrap up the saga.

This particular day of filming finds
the tomboyish Betty McRae (Liebert) as one of the two females in the
boxing ring. When the stylish Gladys Witham (Balfour) makes an
appearance in the crowd and spots Betty, it causes a bit of a
distraction, in more ways than one.

For Balfour, the chance to revive the
role of Gladys was one she eagerly awaited.

“It feels great,” she says during a
break. “We're obviously dealing with a bunch of new subject matter,
but it still feels like coming back to familiar territory. There's an
element of comfort in coming 'home' and there's a sense of community
to the show, which is part of what I love so much about it.”

Born and raised in South Africa,
Balfour graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2009 before she
and her family moved to B.C. Her list of credits includes various TV
projects, including a role this season in CBC's political
comedy-drama, The Best Laid Plans. Nevertheless, Balfour is
still best known for her work as Gladys.

“She's kind of the role of a
lifetime, particularly in the way they keep writing her and
developing her,” Balfour says. “Every year, I get to tackle a
real sense of growth in her. She has so many colours I get to play
with – like vulnerability and fear and sensitivity and insecurity.
And then I also get to play with a sense of courage. It's a really
cool range of things that I get to play, so I count myself lucky.”

Written by Donald Martin and directed
by Jerry Ciccoritti, Bomb Girls: Facing The Enemy picks up the
storyline six months after the events at the conclusion of the
series. There have been changes in all of the women's lives. In some
cases, the changes are significant.

“It's bit of a tricky time for
Gladys,” Balfour explains. “She is longing to see her best
friend. And, you know, the central theme of Gladys' life is this
inescapable loneliness that she deals with a lot of the time.”

While the primary purpose of Bomb
Girls: Facing The Enemy is to tie up loose ends from the series, it
also takes the show's plot a bit further. And that thrilled Balfour
and her castmates.

“We were obviously all really sad
when the show was cancelled but very aware of how lucky we are to get
to do this,” Balfour points out. “I think many shows see
themselves being cancelled and don't get this opportunity.

“It not only serves us an opportunity
to tell the story some more, but also serves us an opportunity to get
a little bit of closure, for us as well as for the audience. It's a
nice opportunity to get to see everyone one more time.”

Bomb Girls: Facing The Enemy – Global – March 27

(A portion of this story was published in Channel Guide Magazine - April 2014.)